I’m currently travelling up from the Southern Thai town of Hat Yai to Bangkok on one of SRT’s new Chinese built sleeper trains. Introduced last year, tbese rakes work some services to Hat Yai and also Chiang Mai. I was keen to try them so I was delighted to secure a reservation on Train 32, the 18:45 departure. Sadly, 1st Class was already booked (these are meant to be very good) so I travelled 2nd. And the verdict? They’re good, but they have a couple of design niggles that someone, somewhere, should have picked up on

First, the good news. They’re light, bright, clean and the build quality seems very good. They’re covered by CCTV at each saloon doorway and they’re equipped with a modern passenger information system which has screens in each car telling you useful stuff about your journey such as times, next calling point, and a route map. It also tells you the temperatures inside and out as well as the speed you’re doing. The system is complemented by regular announcements in both Thai and English. There’s plenty of luggage space under the seats plus there are overhead luggage racks for smaller bags by each bay. The seats are comfortable and the cloth moquette is an attractive deep red. Underneath each window is a small flip-up table with holes to stand drinks. Each car has two toilets, a western one and a squat one. The toilets are more cramped than than in the old cars and older people will struggle with the heavy, inward opening doors. That said, they’re kept spotless as there’s a travelling cleaner on board.

So what’s the problem? These only come to light when it come to getting ready for bed. I had a top bunk, which seemed fine at first. It felt a bit narrower than the old ones as well as a little shorter. I’m 6ft and I just fitted. Taller Westerners may struggle a bit. Also, there’s two metal brackets on the wall by your head which are the catches for when the bed’s closed. These would be very easy to damage yourself on – and quite badly too. Here’s an illustration of what I mean…

There’s a handy light and power socket in the wall, it’s just a shame it doesn’t also have a USB socket. But for me, the other biggest niggle is the positioning of the coach lighting. Because most of the ceiling is taken up by a huge a/c vent, lights have been placed either side – right next to the curtains that shield the upper bunk! This means the curtains are pretty useless as a light shield so the upper bunks are flooded with light all night long. The curtains only use is for privacy. If you’re someone who has trouble sleeping unless it’s dark I think you’ll struggle in a top bunk unless you bring one of those eye-covers that the airlines give away. The upper bunks are also fitted with a reading light and power socket, but believe me – you won’t need the reading light! You’ll also find a string ‘pocket’ to put stuff in. These are pretty useless as the string is so tight (its not elastic either) that you’ll only get stuff like your phone in there.

Now, that bottom bunk…

On the old trains the floor between the seats was raised. The reason was it contained a full-lenghth pull out table that stewards would clip into place at mealtimes. It was fiddly and had to be put away every time the beds were made, so I can understand why they’d want to get rid of it. Now, there’s a far smaller table that folds down from the metal cup holder under the windows. The drawback with this is it reduces the space for the bed mattress. Previously, the bottom bunks were prized, not just for the fact you didn’t have to climb into them. It was also the fact they were so wide they were almost a double bed. A couple could sleep in one together with ease (I know, I’ve done it) – but you won’t be able to do it on the new trains due to the new table arrangement.

This is why the new coaches aren’t a clear winner over the old. Yes, they’ve got some nice, useful features, but it’s very much swings and roundabouts. Some trade-off have been made and there’s a couple of (to my mind) design defects – the most serious of which are the problems with the upper bunk.

This leaves me preferring the old coaches over the new – although I still want to try the 1st Class.

I’d be interested to hear what anyone else’s experiences are. Meanwhile, here’s a look at some of the issues I mentioned.

Exterior view of the new Chinese built sleeper coaches. As can be seen, they look pretty smart.

A view of one of the bays of seats with the upper bunk stowed away for daytime use.

Looking down the car towards the vestibule, showing one of the PIS screens.

Close-up of the flip=up tables, showing how much room they take.

Vestibule showing the CCTV and equipment. As can be seen, they’re clean and well laid out.

Close-up of the PIS screen above the compartment entrance with CCTV camera above

Back when railways were first developed, no-one forsaw any problems with them crossing roads on the flat at level crossings. After all, in those early days, road transport was horse drawn and sparse and motor vehicles had yet to arrive on the scene . Move forward 175 years and the situation is very different – especially in urban areas.

Probably the worst example of a level crossing in the UK is in Lincoln, where traffic is brought to a standstill several times an hour by passenger and freight services. Despite the provision of a new footbridge to ease pedestrian flows, little can be done to replace the crossing by a bridge or tunnel due to the built-up nature of the area.

Lincoln, showing how the crossing is hemmed in at either side, making replacement with a tunnel or bridge impractical.

I’ve found an even worse example in Bangkok, Thailand. Yommarat Junction is a few kilometres North of the city’s main railway station, Hualamphong. Here, the railway lines to the East splits from the lines to the North and South of the country to form a triangle, with Yommarat at the Southern end. Back when the line opened in 1903 this wasn’t an issue. Bangkok was a small city with little road traffic. Now, it’s a bustling metropolis of 14 million people that has a horrendous traffic problem – and the rail crossing at Yommarat sits bang in the middle of some major road junctions. Whilst Lincoln can see 10 trains on hour, on my visit to Yommarat there were 15 in an hour and ten minutes. This was a mix of passenger, light engines and inbound ECS services. The road traffic is even more diverse as the area to the West of the crossing includes a hospital, Royal palaces and army barracks, so you regularly see convoys of black cars with heavily tinted windows, escorted by police motorcycles, speeding through.

A look at a map shows exactly what the problem is.

Not only does the railway cross a crucial crossroads of four main roads connecting East and West Bangkok, there’s also the slip road to the city’s elevated Sirat expressway just a hundred yards to the East of the line. It’s not just the roads that suffer here. Trains have to be held either side of the crossing to allow the traffic to clear and the gates to be closed. It’s not a quick operation. It often adds 5-20 minutes to a trains journey. Often, trains are held at either side so that they pass on the crossing. It doesn’t hold up traffic for as long, but it’s hardly great for punctuality! The normal method of working the gates is to close the Southern pair first, leaving the Eastern flow across to the vital expressway slip road open for as long as possible.

Here’s a few pictures to set the scene.

Hitachi built Co-Co No 4560 heads South across Phetchaburi Rd towards Hualamphong terminus (off to the right of the picture). You can see traffic queuing up the flyover behind it.

One of the UK built Class 158 DMUs passes a Hitachi built Co-Co which is working ECS to Hualamphong, bringing in some of the new Chinese built sleeper cars that are used on overnight services to Chiang Mai.

Meanwhile, here’s a video to show what happens before and after a train passes. Watch out for the volume of traffic that’s unleashed after the gates open.

Unsurprisingly, everyone is keen to get rid of the crossing. After several false starts a solution is now at hand. In 2019 Hualamphong terminus is due to be closed and turned into a museum as it will be replaced by the new Bang Sue interchange (see this previous blog). Admittedly, this date has slipped before but the writing’s clearly on the wall for this crossing. It’s an entertaining throwback to an earlier era (unless you’re a Bangkok motorist!) – so go and see it whilst you can.

I’m sat in my new hotel room after downsizing in both luxury and cost as my partner, Dawn, flew back to the UK early this morning. Now I’m on my own for the next few weeks as I do some exploring whilst using the time to catch up with friends In Indonesia and Malaysia.

I’m back in old haunts in Banglumphu at a backpackers hotel called the Happio. I’ve stayed here many times in the past. Then it was called Happy House. It’s cheap, cheerful, friendly and suits my needs as I only require a room for 14 or so hours as I’ve got a flight to Bali at silly o’ clock in the morning. One improvement is that the hotel wifi has been extended from the restaurant/reception to encompass all the rooms. As I’ve been travelling long enough to remember the days of ‘Poste Restante’ addresses (what? ask younger travellers) I’m still sometimes amazed how the communications revolution and the internet has revolutionised travelling – for better and worse…

Dawn and I spent the past few weeks relaxing in Thailand. For once, instead of travelling, we stayed the entire time down in the Krabi area. I’ll blog about our time there separately. As I’m now on my own I’m using the time to catch up on work at home and plan the rest of the trip as I’m going to be very much on the move (I have itchy feet to scratch), so expect regular blogging and pictures.

Although I’ll miss Bangkok (I feel very much at home here) I won’t miss the traffic. Chrissorn, an old Thai friend of ours drove us to the airport at 6am this morning. At that time of day the traffic was fine, but Chris & I got caught up in mayhem on the return trip as one of the expressways was in gridlock so the journey took more than twice as long. Bangkok is slowly extending and linking up its rail and metro network but some projects are years late, disconnected from each other and the fares are expensive – which isn’t tempting people out of their cars (as Chris explained to me – he’d only got his car a few days ago). You can read about some of the reasons why in my earlier blog about a trip on the new Purple line metro.

Bangkok is a stark contrast to London which has a mature rail network. Few would dream of commuting into the capital by car & the city isn’t scarred by the massive flyovers and elevated expressways that Bangkok has to endure. Still, I’ll be interested to see how things develop. I expect to be popping back on a regular basis to check on progress. But right now, it’s time for lunch…

The run of unseasonal wet weather continues here in Southern Thailand. Torrential rain arrived in the early hours of the morning and, although its strength abated several hours ago, it’s still raining now at 1.50pm. I’ve never known anything like it in all the years I’ve been coming to this part of the world. I’ve cut my cloth accordingly and spent the day catching up on the news – which frankly, is as depressing as the weather here.

What the hell is going on with politics in the UK? Both Labour and the Tories seem to have taken leave of their senses. Firstly, there was Teresa May’s blustering speech on Brexit in which she called for the country to unite behind her in her economically suicidal pursuit of ‘hard’ Brexit. Has the woman lost her mind? I only have one answer for her. Like hell I will!

As if that wasn’t patronising enough, she showed how little she actually understands about negotiating by threatening the EU. ‘Give us a good deal or I’ll turn the UK into a low tax Singapore on your doorstep’ she claimed. Meanwhile, good old Boris insulted French President Hollande by accusing his country of wanting to inflict “WW2 style punishment beatings” on the UK (see video here). This man is meant to be a diplomat for God’s sake! No wonder the UK’s Civil Service is in despair as the FCO is led by a blundering clown. The UK political scene is rapidly descending into low farce. It’s ‘Carry on Brexit’.

Needless to say, our European neighbours response was far more mature. They ignored the threats and promptly burst May’s bubble by pointing out a few practical political and economic realities (see here).

Meanwhile, what’s the reaction of Jeremy Corbyn, the Leader of the Labour party and allegedly the main ‘opposition’ party? Remember that the overwhelming majority of Labour voters and MPs supported remaining in the UK. So, Corbyn obviously supports that position and the democratic mandate it gives him to represent his party’s wishes, no? Like hell! Corbyn is going to impose a three line whip on his MPs to make sure they don’t oppose triggering Article 50!

We now have the bizarre situation that the majority of the UKs political establishment is rushing headlong into imposing Brexit on the country, despite only 37% of the electorate having voted for it. Not only that, but even many Leave campaign luminaries were swearing blind that a vote for Brexit didn’t mean that we’d be leaving the single market. Like all their other claims, that was a lie too – and here’s the evidence.

No wonder Britain has become the laughing stock of Europe. Our politics have descended into a farce and the majority of the electorate are being shafted by a vociferous, kamikaze minority who don’t seem to have the mental wherewithal to see what’s coming their way. It’s akin to steerage passengers on the Titanic urging the Captain to go faster & damn the icebergs. What’s equally baffling are the ones who do have the critical faculties to appreciate the situation that’s facing us, but prefer not to and sing ‘always look on the bright side of life’ instead.

Just before leaving Bangkok I took a trip on the city’s new standard gauge ‘purple’ metro line the first half of which only opened to passengers on 6th August 2016. This section runs for 23km from Tao Poon, near Bang Sue North-West to Khlong Bang Phai in Rat Burana district.

I started my trip by getting a taxi through the choked city streets to Hualamphong station. Anyone who’s every travelled in the city will know its fearsome reputation for traffic jams which mean even the shortest journeys can take an age. You never know just how long it will take you to get from A-B by road. The Indonesians have an expression for it, ‘jam karet’ (‘rubber time’). Frustrating as it is for visitors, imagine what it must be like to be one of the cities long-suffering taxi or bus drivers, who must have the patience of Buddha.

Hualamphong had changed since my last visit in 2015, with mixed results. On the good side, there’s now a special ticket office for tourists which is located opposite platforms 7-8. The building used to be home to an excellent Thai soup kitchen that was full of steaming vats of different and delicious varieties from around the kingdom. I’d often eat there when I was staying nearby, so I’m sad to see it’s gone. Gone too are all the hawkers who used to sell food and drink on the platforms. No longer can you buy bamboo skewers of chicken or pork slowly grilled over charcoal, or the bags of sticky rice that used to accompany them. Even the shops that used to occupy the booths on platforms 4-5 are deserted. I think the slow demise of these eateries began when the authorities banned the sale & consumption of alcohol in 2014, after the rape and murder of the 13 year old girl aboard a train by a railway employee. It still seems an over the top response, especially as the crime wasn’t carried out by passengers. Shops and a food hall can be found on the main concourse under the attractive arched roof, but the restaurant & bar on the mezzanine floor has closed down, which is a shame. It used to be a great place to sit, sip a beer and people watch before catching a train. There’s a couple more improvements on the platforms, as some have been equipped with electronic departure/arrival screens by the buffer stops and four of the roads outside the roof now have fancy canvas roofs covering the first few coach lengths. Even so, some of the life an interest seems to have gone out of the place. This wasn’t helped by the fact that services to Malaysia, Hat Yai & other Southern destinations in Thailand had all been cancelled due to unseasonal floods washing away the tracks in the South. Here’s a few pictures…

Once these kiosks were busy little places supplying food and drink to passengers for the express trains to all points in Thailand, now they’re locked up and deserted.

Eschewing the tourist ticket office I bought a ticket to Bang Sue Junction from one of the ordinary ticket windows for the princely sum of 2 baht (less than 6p!). Not bad for an 11.5km journey – especially when you consider that the metro journey between the two would cost 70 baht! The train that took me there was made up of wooden seated 3rd Class coaches headed by a diesel loco built by Alsthom. No 4150 was one of the first batch of 54 supplied in 1975 although its one of the fleet that’s had its original engine replaced with an MTU 16V4000R41R power unit.

My ticket to Bang Sue. Not exactly a King’s ransom…

The trip to Bang Sue was the usual stop/start affair as we negotiated several busy level crossings en-route. They don’t exactly help traffic flows around the city and they’re one of the reasons that the main terminus for Bangkok is moving to Bang Sue. Although it’s years late and still under construction, the new station is already an impressive sight. The first inkling that you’re getting close when you see the enormous, twin track concrete viaducts rise on either side of the existing lines before they sweep across to the right in a wide arc to what was the site of Bang Sue’s carriage sidings and goods yard. These have been swept away to make way for the site of the new interchange, which will be a vast, four storey station with tracks on two levels. When it’s complete it’s planned to have 24 600 metre long platforms, reportedly making it the largest station in Asia. Construction is now well underway. All the massive pillars appear to be present and they’re festooned with cranes and gantries which are lifting the huge concrete segments to make up the train decks into place. Meanwhile, the old, partially demolished station continues in its role.

The new Bang Sue interchange station takes shape.

One of the gantries which lifts concrete segments that form the bridges for the running lines into place before joining them together.

Leaving the train at Bang Sue I crossed the tracks on foot and weaved my way through the numerous hawkers food stalls to get to the main road and bus stops. I’d just missed one of the shuttle buses that connect with the purple line terminus at Tao Poon, so, as it was a cloudy day and not too humid I elected to walk the 1km distance between the two as it gave me chance to check out the Blue line extension of the existing underground line which will eventually link the two. This rises up out of the ground like the launch ramp of a V1 rocket, before levelling off on a not unattractive viaduct to reach Tao Poon, where it passes under the Purple line to create a station in the perfect shape of a cross. It’s a massive elevated edifice that involves a serious amount of steel and concrete. But, at the moment, the lack of a real rail interchange is having a serious effective on purple line passenger numbers. It’s only carrying 20,000 instead of the projected 70,000 per day. The blue line extension is currently expected to open in August this year.

The entrance to the platforms at Tao Poon. You can see the security gates everyone has to pass through.

Making my way up the steps and elevators to the concourse I found the place pretty quiet. Admittedly, it was early afternoon, but it was clear the station was built to cope with far more passengers than it was seeing. I used one of the bilingual ticket machines to buy a ticket (well, a plastic token in reality) to take me to the Northern terminus at Khlong Bang Phai for 42 baht. Thanks to Brexit this is just (but only just) under a pound. At the moment a quid is worth a smidgen over 43 baht. Before that economic and political disaster you would have got 53 baht for a quid. Cheers Quitters! But I digress…

After buying a ticket you have to pass through security to reach the platforms. Two electronic gates were staffed by a couple of smiling and continually wai-ing young ladies who asked to look in my camera bag. Once through I took another escalator up to platform level, which is staffed by Thais working for G4S (famed for their London Olympics debacle). Cross the yellow tactile tiles along the platform edge or lean on the platform barriers that separate it from the trac,ks and you’ll soon attract their attention via a sharp blast from their whistles! In truth they were unswervingly polite and helpful and simply carrying out their duties as instructed. Their was no objection to me taking photos and there’s no signs that say you can’t (unlike on the underground) so everything was fine. All 16 stations on the line follow the same basic layout. They’re all island platforms 6 cars long, although the concourse & ticket office arrangements vary by location. The vast majority of the route runs along the central reservation of roads of varying sizes, where there’s room everything will be built underneath the platforms and linked to the pavement via footbridges. Where the roads are too narrow ticket machines and gates will be housed on buildings adjacent to the pavement. Four of the stations (Khlong Bang Phai, Sam Yaek Bang Yai, Tha It and Yaek Nonthaburi) have huge multi-story park and ride carparks.

A typical station layout on the purple line, showing the platform gates, lift and stairs. Don’t step over the tactile yellow strip until a train comes in, otherwise the staff will tell you off!

In 2013 the Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand awarded metro concessionaire Bangkok Metro Public Company Ltd an 80·3bn baht 30-year contract to operate and maintain the route. This was divided into a 3 year construction phase before a 27 year operating phase. The contract also included supplying rolling stock and electrical and mechanical equipment. The 21 3-car trains were supplied by East Japan Railway train manufacturing subsidiary J-TREC (Japan Transport Engineering Company). In fact much of the line has been funded by Japan, with loans coming from an ODA loan. The M&E equipment has also been supplied by Japanese firms. This plaque at Klong Bang Phai commemorates Japanese involvement.

The whole length of the line is elevated, which makes for an interesting trip, not because it’s particularly scenic as most of the landscape is urban, but because it shows you how improved transport infrastructure has kick-started development. New multi-story apartment blocks are springing up all along the route. In many cases, older (say 20-40 years) low rise structures are being demolished to make way for them. Some of these are the traditional Chinese style shop-houses, others are derelict factory sprawl and a few are greenfield sites. Of course, unlike to roads it follows, the beauty of a trip on the metro is that you know exactly how long it’ll take.

Points of interest along the route are just beyond Bang Son the second station, where the line sails high above the existing SRT line to the South – and the new elevated light red line from Taling Chan, with its own station to the right. Although this metre-gauge line was completed some years ago, even running a trial service back in 2012-14 using existing SRT DMUs it’s been mothballed since January 2014 as it neither has new trains to run on it, or the new station at Bang Sue to run into!

There is one scenic part of the trip, which is when the line crosses high above the majestic Chao Prahya after Phra Nang Klao station before heading off along more main roads through suburban sprawl and new shopping centres. Shortly afterwards it reaches journey’s end at Khlong Bang Phai. The approach to which is signalled by an elevated line branching off to the right which runs into the lines new purpose built depot containing two long battleship-grey sheds. The nearest one is for stabling and cleaning whilst the furthest is for maintenance.

The depot at Khlong Bang Phai, with park and ride facilities below it.

The 3-car trains that operate the line are rather swish. I’ve not been able to find any technical details of them (if anyone can point me in the direction of some I’d be grateful) but they follow the standard Thai pattern of having plastic longitudinal seats, a/c, CCTV, lots of standing room and plenty of grab-rails. They have open gangways and a PIS system that counts down the stations stopped at en-route. Here’s a look at them…

I’ve no doubt that once fully connected, and with all the new development that surround the line completed, the purple line with fulfil its potential. But right now is a good time to visit as it’s pleasantly quiet! Once this is completed, it will be a different matter…

Looking down on the extension to blue line at Tao Soon where tracklaying is heading Westward.

New railway construction abounds in Bangkok. When I return later this month I’ll post an update on the construction of the new elevated ‘dark red’ line for SRT, the first section of which runs from Bang Sue, past Don Mueang airport to Thammasat University.

If you want to see more pictures from this series, as well as travel shots from my time in Thailand, follow this link to my picture website.

It’s a cool grey morning here on our first day back in Bangkok. Well, cool for Thailand that is – having just flown in from the UK it feels rather pleasant. Rain is predicted for later in the day but nothing like the unseasonal downpours that have caused flooding in the South of the country. The planet’s climate is certainly getting more unpredictable. The unusual is becoming the norm nowadays, yet some people still refuse to accept that the climate is changing and we’re responsible.

After being awake for over 26 hours I’d have expected to sleep longer, as we have in the past (one time for nearly 16 hours as we were that knackered). Admittedly, we did have an impromptu alarm clock in the form of a young English couple in the room next door. She was awake at 6am so she could spend nearly 2 hours ‘phoning (or face timing) her family back in the UK. I only know all this because the hotel walls aren’t that thick, so her voice penetrated quite easily. It was a terribly mundane conversation, padded out with the gratuitous use of the word ‘like’, amongst others. As an old fart who’s been tramping these Asian trails since 1985 I couldn’t help reflecting (and almost yearning) for the days when the only way you could keep regular contact with home was by sitting down and writing them a letter – at least you couldn’t hear the noise of someone scribbling through a wall! Or, for that matter, this modern equivalent, committing your thoughts and deeds to a blog like this. It’s also far less ephemeral, reaches more people and I can edit out all the ‘likes’, so what’s not to like, like? In fact, I’m typing this on the laptop whilst Dawn is asleep next to me…

Our journey from the UK went without a hitch. A friend had arranged discount 1st Class tickets on Virgin East coast for us so the trip was in style as we wined and dined on the 12.15 from Leeds to London. I’d not done this for a while, so I have to admit to being impressed with the quality of the food. I had a lovely lamb and mashed potato dish, washed down with a glass of wine. Even if we’d have paid full price, an advance single from Leeds to London was still only £45 (with a meal and wine) which rather puts the recent stories about ‘rip-off’ rail fares into perspective.

We’d given ourselves plenty of time to get to Heathrow but the Piccadilly line was working like clockwork so we stopped off in Covent Garden for some last-minute shopping. There’s a clutch of outdoor shops on the South side which allowed me to arm ourselves with some of the weapons-grade mosquito repellent that can come in rather useful in this neck of the woods, especially as Dawn reacts badly to mossie bites. Terminal 4 at Heathrow was very busy but all the staff were efficient so we were checked-in on our Jet Airways flight in good order, through security with a joke and a smile (always nice as it’s such a thankless process for everyone). Soon we were sitting in a bar-restaurant for a last snack and my final pint of British bitter for some time. I’m not a great fan of this terminal. It’s cramped and the selection of eateries is limited compared to others, although it’s still a lot better than I remember it from the past now that it’s been given a makeover.

The first leg of out flight was with Jet Airways to their hub at Mumbai (Bombay in old money) aboard a Boeing 777. The flight was packed but I can’t complain. The legroom was OK, the stews’ were friendly and efficient and the vegetarian meal was really tasty – Dahl, with rice and spinach, served with a paratha. On long-haul flights like this I always try & catch a few movies as I’m not a great sleeper and It gives me chance to see stuff I’ve either missed or wouldn’t pay for at a cinema. The in-flight entertainment system was stuck and needed a reset but once it came on it worked a treat and I gorged myself on “Independence Day: Resurgence” which is a pick-up from the original, if not quite as exciting now as it closely follows the path of the first film,”Jason Bourne”, which I really enjoyed as I’ve always been a fan of the series, and finally, “Suicide squad”, a steaming pile of cosmic comic-book nonsense which even Will Smith couldn’t do much with.

We landed at Mumbai on time, so the 90 minute connection time was a breeze. I’ve not been here for a few years. It was unrecognizable as an Indian airport. Not just because it’s been completely rebuilt, but because it didn’t suffer from the usual problems Indian construction always used to. It wasn’t shoddy, and everything worked! I was genuinely impressed by the scale of the place, the quality of the shops and services, and the décor.

The second leg of our flight for the four hour trip to Bangkok was aboard a another Boeing, this time a modern 737-800. As it’s a smaller, single-aisle plane there’s no seat-back entertainment screens, instead, programmes are streamed to your own personal devices. Once again, the service was good. If anything, the stewardesses were friendly and more accessible than before. The veggie meal was just as delicious only this time the spinach came with paneer. I treated myself to a couple of glasses of red wine (something else I won’t be drinking for a few months) to help me sleep. We’d got plenty of leg-room as we were in seats by the escape door, although this was offset by the fact those seats don’t recline. Still, it was a pleasant flight.

The only real complaint of the trip was that the queues for passport control at Bangkok were massive. Several big planes had arrived together and the staff couldn’t cope. We queued for about 40 mins to get through. The irony was, just as the queues abated, extra staff appeared! I couldn’t help thinking back to the UK and the madness of the Brexit vote. Is this going to be the experience we can look forward to at EU airport if we do crash out of Europe – as is looking extremely likely?

We took the airport rail link to get into the city. At 45 baht for a trip to Phaya Thai it’s both the quickest and cheapest way. I was confused when I saw we were being ushered onto one of the red ‘Airport Express’ trains as these used to be dedicated to the Makkasan link but nowadays some trains run the full length of the route. The problem is, one of the four coaches is reserved for checked in airline luggage, which is a waste of space as the service was never anywhere near as popular as it was meant to be so it was abandoned in 2014. Now they move only fresh air, whilst the rest of the train is packed*. At Phaya Thai we caught a taxi to get us to our hotel off Phra Artit Rd, by the Chao Praya river. Unusually for Bangkok, the first taxi I flagged down agreed to use his meter without demur, so we were at the hotel’s check-in desk by 21:00.

Despite being tired we were actually hungry, so we quickly changed before heading out to see if one of our favorite street restaurants in Rambutri was still going. It’s been rebranded ‘The Gun’ but the staff and the quality of the food are still the same. I ordered the classic Thai papaya salad with prawns whilst Dawn ordered a spicy steamed squid in a hot and sour sauce. We shared them both whilst washing them down with a bottle of ‘Chang’ lager (now reduced from 6 to 5.2% abv I see). The food was divine, as was the chance to unwind and get used to being back in a city we both feel very at home in.

It’s great to be back.

PS. I’ll add some pictures later. At the moment the hotel wifi doesn’t seem to like me trying…

In 2009 I was on a press trip that had a look at te new Airport rail link before it opened. You you’ll find may behind the scenes pictures of the operation here.